Family Life in The Village
With my wife and child on extended stay with Siu Ying’s parents in their village near ToisanCity, I have become a regular visitor these past few months. It has also given me the chance to witness their routines at first hand. Now whilst there is no set formula in place, Baba and Yee Lo both tend to work outside in the fields and allotments most of the day whilst the women tend to stay nearer the home.
Baba is not a person given to idling his time away, and is always busy doing something. The only exceptions on quiet days are when perhaps an old friend is visiting the village, or relative he has not seen for ages drops by. All the others will enjoy slack times by playing Mah Jong, or sleeping late, watching TV = the normal things people with time to spare do. Both Siu Ying and Yee Lo like to listen to music on my laptop, and surprisingly you may find he actually enjoy hearing and singing the same Chinese songs I like best!
At present the household comprises of: Baba, Mama, Yee Lo, Loi Loi (Yee Lo’s daughter), Siu Ying and Rhiannon (Nonni). Yee Lo’s wife visits about once a week, usually arriving Saturday and leaving late Sunday. I turn up every two or three weeks and stay for several nights. The house has four bedrooms, so there is more than enough space to accommodate everybody and rooms are dedicated to a family unit – so Siu Ying, Nonni and I share her bedroom. There is an extra bed in Yee Lo’s room for Loi Loi. One bedroom is reserved for Dai Lo, which Baba sometimes uses if Nonni spends time with Mama during the night.
Siu Ying is breast feeding, which is a great strain I am sure. Rhiannon is not the easiest of babies, and does cry often. This usually means she wants feeding, and instead of having a feast and sleeping it off, she tends to prefer a little and often. At 4-months old she is now a lot better than before, but still remains quite labour intensive compared to others her age. Her feed is supplemented by bottled milk, but she refuses to drink the Chinese brands, and will only have the same thing brought from Hong Kong. Interesting! She is now taking other fluids like special teas, which she prefers to drink straight from the beaker, not a baby bottle. I think she must take after me hahaha! During my last visit she also spent time munching on a very little rice, which she didn’t seem to enjoy too much, but was persistent enough to finish off a finger full.
Meanwhile Siu Ying is still on a restricted eating regime, something she must be fed-up with by now. She is very aware that what she eats will become part of Nonni’s milk, so since 1-month before the birth she has been taking hot water as her only fluid intake. She eats twice per day, and has at least 2 large bowls of rice with each meal. Her main course is always fish supplemented by a little chicken and cabbage. She also has a lot of soup, especially several forms of vegetable soups that are often served with every meal. Unlike the rest of China, the people of the village tend to eat two main meals each day, with brunch being served around 11.30, and the evening meal about 7.30pm. Food is always readily available and all you have to do is go and help yourself. Occasionally either Baba or Yee Lo will have a small break fast around 7.30am, or perhaps those who stay up late will take late supper. This is reminiscent of my times spent as an exhibition Chippy (Carpenter), where we would arrive for work around 7.30am and make a brew. We then had a breakfast break at 10am; with the bacon, eggs, and sausage toasties served by the NEC workers canteen remaining one of my favourites to this very day. Sometimes I would order two runny eggs per sarnie – Yum-Yum! I think the reason was that whilst the toast was buttered hot, it was then placed into a servery warmer on a hot water bed, which sort of steamed the buttered toast, making it perfect for this dish. But I digress, as I am prone to do…
I think the thing with men who have hard labour in their lives, is that they do not like to eat immediately they awaken, but instead prefer to work for a couple of hours. Then a decent meal is just what their system requires, and does not leave them feeling bloated. Lunch is then a minimal requirement they often pass and nap instead, and the second big meal then comes at the end of the day. I now live quite a sedentary life, and my most used muscles are probably in my fingers, as used for typing this missive. I tend to eat only once per day, and it is a big meal which totally knocks me out. My wife has learnt this, and knows I will fall asleep very soon after eating. We are both night-owls, and before Nonni arrived, we would usually go to bed as dawn was breaking - I guess we are both a little bit crazy? Now wouldn’t this world be so very boring if we were all the same - Ahha! By the way, it is 3.35am now, and I am wide awake and in full flow. Time for a beer I guess, and perhaps I will finish today around 7am, and just in time for morning ‘Sik Juk’ (Rice porridge) as served by Peter Perfect The Porridge Pastor who works just up the lane.However, it is also time we returned to Mohr Dohr Soi Zheng and village life in Toisan as it is today: Friday, 30th April 2010.
Baba rises each day around 6.30am, and goes straight out to work. He will return around 11.30 for brunch, and again around 7pm (Dusk) for the evening meal. Sometimes he stays with the family, and sometimes he goes out to visit friends or finish his days work. His normal bedtime is around 9.30 at night, but this is never set in stone of course. I think that sometimes he visits friends and has the odd glass of rice wine, and may arrive back after midnight – but this is not a usual occurrence.
Mama also rises at 6.30, and for the last few months she has taken charge of looking after Rhiannon. In effect, Siu Ying has been her trainee for the last 3 months, as Mama has always bathed the baby and taken the lead in all baby related matters. It seems that Siu Ying’s apprenticeship is now over, as she alone now baths Nonni, and takes a lot more time and care about it. So what does Mama do I hear you ask? Well, she looks after the chickens and makes feed for them each morning. She runs the house of course, but in subtle ways, as everyone present knows their place. She also feeds to two cats, one of which is now heavily pregnant. She brings in the daily tinder and wood for the fire (Which Yee Lo and Baba have prepared already), and sometimes cooks. She works the rice fields with Baba and Yee Lo at planting and harvest times, but otherwise mainly supervises what is happening on a daily level. She likes to play Mah Jong when there is time, but still does some remarkable things on the side. For example; whilst we all eat, she takes care on Nonni and eats after we have all finished. Most afternoons she will strap Nonni to her back and carry her around in the typical Chinese back-pack contraption that apparently her own Mother used to carry her around in when she was a baby. There are numerous pictures of this. She is also quite vociferous when it comes to family matters, and is determined to have her way. Baba occasionally over-rules her, but in general he leaves her to get on with whatever it is. During the evenings both Mama and Siu Ying love to watch Chinese soaps on TV. These are everlasting period drama’s that seem to have neither beginning nor end? Fortunately they are usually in Cantonese, so I could follow the plot – if I had the desire too of course? Yep! Let’s take that as a ‘No’ then hehe! Mama usually heads for bed around the same time as Baba = 9.30pm, but sometimes a lot later as nothing hereabouts is ever set in stone.
Yee Lo is an interesting character, and the second of the three children. Dai Lo is much older, but lives away in Hoipeng (KaiPingCity), where he along with his wife and 14-year old son have a nice gaff with central location. Both Dai Lo and Yee Lo speak pretty good Cantonese which I can understand. Mama, and Baba mainly speak either Toisanwah (Taishanese) or Mandarin – both of which I am pretty clueless about. Whilst Dai Lo and myself show each other greatest respect, it is actually Yee Lo I get along best with – as he is more laid-back and we have enjoyed some good times and ‘Boy-times’ together. The sparrow shooting was a classic, which is related in missive: ‘Village life in Guangdong’.
During my last trip to Mohr Dohr Soi I made a point of finding out more about Yee Lo’s life, and it is interesting – if only for cultural exchange purposes. I still haven’t fixed what’s with his wife yet, as when I first met him he was living in a nice gaff in Toisan city, whilst his wife was away working in the States. He was raising Loi Loi on his own + working as a chef in a local restaurant. He is a very good cook by the way! Next thing I know, he has returned to the family home, whilst his wife has returned from America, and is now working as a waitress in ToisanCity. Apparently she gets free accommodation with her job, but only makes enough money to support herself. I really don’t quite get this and think there is more to tell at a later point. However, this is their business - and none of ours!
Yee Lo’s daily life has altered recently, as he has started a new business in order to pay for his daughters kindergarten, presumably pay his parents for food and lodgings (?), and he is saving up to buy a new motorbike, as he thinks the two they already own are a load of crap. It would be difficult to pay more than about Y4, 000 RMB for a brand new motorbike or scooter – or about 400 quid in UK today. This would be for a genuine ‘Kwayahonduki’ (Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, or Suzuki) or fully spec’d ‘whispering death’ (Electric motorcycle or scooter).
Yee Lo’s daily routines are a tad bizarre, even by my own extremes! It’s the fish thingymagig you know? Well, Yee Lo tends to rise around 7.30, give or take half an hour. His first priority is to wake Loi Loi (Who is definitely not a morning person), and take her to Kindergarten. This is located somewhere on the main road and takes about ten minutes to reach by scooter. Loi Loi has just turned 4, and has been attending for the last 8-months or so. This costs around Y1, 000 RMB per 20-week semester, two of these being divided annually either side of Chinese New Year (February-ish), with a long summer break. Chinese kindergartens usually operate at least 12 hours per day, and usually offer boarding facilities also. Loi Loi is a day student, and has already grasped a high level of Mandarin, and enjoys English – which she sometimes tries to practice on me. However, she is really into the songs, or repeating Mandarin and English as taught. In her home they always speak Toisanwah, whilst I only understand English and Cantonese. This has me in absolute stitches sometimes, as I will speak to Loi Loi in Cantonese, and she will reply to me in Mandarin. Durrrh! My point is that at age just turned 4, this child can already speak 4 languages! Imaging that in UK? Well, ok, her English and Cantonese are not that good, but her Cantonese is far better than mine – when I can actually get her to speak it. You see, she expects everybody to understand Mandarin, and hasn’t yet figured out that I don’t. Ho-hum!
This leads me to thinking about Rhiannon and her own schooling and future. She may follow a similar route in her early years, and kindergarten will be central to this from 3-years old. This means she will end up with Toisanwah and Mandarin as her basic languages: except, I am British and speak English. Her only other option is to speak Cantonese to me, and by that I mean mainstream ‘Bahtwah’ such as Foshan speaking. If I were really cruel, then I would add International Spanish to this mix … but how much language can you responsibly inflict upon an infant, when music is the only true international language – and one I must also address for her future wellbeing. At night, Nonni likes to go to sleep holding my fingers in her small hand, and I am already trying to get her to shape E in the key of C. 12-Bar Blues hahaha!
Loi Loi is too young still for me to be effective with, as her English always reverts to the songs given in the textbooks and accompanying CD. I don’t even know the tunes, although was delighted to hear her singing Frere Jaque in Chinese – which is nothing remotely like the original in French btw (By The Way). Maybe I surprised her by singing it first in French, and then the English version (Somehow magically managing to translate the French directly into English as I sang – where the hell did that come from?)
But that’s my point –you learn without knowing, and language learnt at such early ages is so easy. I am now 56 years old, and my brain is already full of shit (I said it first Hahaha!) A brain is very like a computer, except, you cannot install a new operating system, nor delete items from memory. There is only so much you can put into a brain, and trying to learn a new and bizarre language is not something I am good at. Jesus! I am British, and the only reason English is now the default world language is because my ancestors refused point black to speak other languages, and only spoke and used English. I am pretty good at writing International Spanish, and have tried to introduce the word ‘Gringo’ to Madrid speakers of the tongue with little success. I guess I watched too many cowboy films as a youngster lol. But Madrid speakers of Spanish really do not know what a Gringo is = Durrrh! But who are you? Well, I am not a linguist, but can say hello, ‘cheers’, and goodbye in many languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Toisanwah, Spanish, Russian, Polish, French, Breton, German, Ibiza Balearics, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Tunisian (Arabic and Berber), Thai, Nepali, Irish (Not quite the same as English), Welsh, Scottish, Danish, Japanese, and Kazak. Shite! That’s 25 world languages. I didn’t know I knew so much! Are those 3 words useful in every language? You bet! Why do I know all this? Well, at one time or another in my small life, each has been an important form of communication in some form or another. So I look at Loi Loi today, and ponder about Rhiannon tomorrow … What can I do now to make a difference to their future lives in this ever shrinking world we all live in? Well, I guess I can teach them both to pronounce English correctly, and introduce phrases into common speech such as: ‘Asi es la vida’ and ‘J’un es sais quoi’. If Nonni becomes her Fathers Daughter, then she better get used to “Nz’drovyen” as well I guess? Cheers!
The above probably relates little to Yee Lo’s life, but some could be important to his daughter’s future. This will be my honour as she grows into her future. But for now, until she works out that I don’t speak Mandarin, there is a pause – and it is for her to catch-up, as I am far too old and British too get my head around Mandarin. Having stated that, my Mandarin is actually coming on a lot, basically because if I want to write a Chinese character in the computer, then I need to know ‘pinyin’ (Mandarin written using the alphabet), and this is now quite common for me. But in order to write the pinyin, I need to know the mandarin word. Ahha! Yes, that simple and intriguing.
Just in case you ever wondered how Chinese people manage to write Chinese characters using a Western keyboard – it goes like this:
First of all you go to the language bar (Activate as necessary) and select an input language. I use Chinese Simplified (Mandarin) and Chinese Traditional (Hong Kong). There are other versions, such as Taiwan, but let us not complicate an already complicated situation further. Having now got your keyboard speaking Chinese, you then need to select a Chinese character input application. I use ‘拼QuanPin’ as it is pretty simple. Other versions are quite complicated, or else you need to understand what Chinese ‘Radical’ characters are? Siu Ying prefers a touch-pad, as she knows how to write the characters freehand, but not their pinyin alternatives.
Pinyin is Mandarin written using the alphabet, and is excellent, if not always quite correct. Jyutpin is Cantonese written using the alphabet, except this is the weird type of Cantonese used only in Hong Kong by Foreigners and officials, only. There don’t appear to be any sensible input devices either. Mainland Cantonese understand most Cantonese characters, but would spell them quite differently using English. That is why one of my projects is to make a new ‘pin’ for Mainland Cantonese use. I am working on it when I have time, and have called it ‘Pinyue™’, as Yue or 粤essentially means Cantonese / GuangdongProvince.